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Beryl Christine Atieno
Beryl Christine Atieno

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Deploying a FastAPI Book Management API on AWS EC2 with Nginx

#nginx #ec2 #cicd #githubactions

Introduction

In this blog post, I'll walk you through the entire process of building a FastAPI Book Management API and deploying it on an AWS EC2 instance with Nginx as a reverse proxy. This guide is perfect for anyone looking to deploy a backend service in a cloud environment.

Setting Up the Project

First, let's create and set up our FastAPI application.

Step 1: Install FastAPI and Uvicorn 

pip install fastapi uvicorn
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Step 2: Create the Project Structure 

mkdir fastapi-book-project && cd fastapi-book-project mkdir api core tests
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Step 3: Define the Book Model and In-Memory Database

Create a schemas.py file inside api/db/ to define the book schema using Pydantic:

from pydantic import BaseModel from enum import Enum from typing import Optional class Genre(str, Enum): fiction = "Fiction" nonfiction = "Non-Fiction" mystery = "Mystery" fantasy = "Fantasy" horror = "Horror" class Book(BaseModel): id: int title: "str" author: str publication_year: int genre: Genre
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Step 4: Create API Routes

Create books.py inside api/routes/:

from fastapi import APIRouter, HTTPException from api.db.schemas import Book, Genre router = APIRouter() books_db = [] @router.get("/books", response_model=list[Book]) def get_books(): return books_db @router.post("/books", response_model=Book) def add_book(book: Book): books_db.append(book) return book
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Step 5: Create the Main App Entry Point

In main.py, set up the FastAPI app:

from fastapi import FastAPI from api.routes import books app = FastAPI() app.include_router(books.router, prefix="/api/v1") @app.get("/healthcheck") def health_check(): return {"status": "healthy"}
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Step 6: Run the Application Locally 

uvicorn main:app --reload
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Now, visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/docs to test the API.

Setting Up an AWS EC2 Instance

Step 1: Launch an EC2 Instance

  • Log in to AWS and navigate to EC2.
  • Click Launch Instance.
  • Select Ubuntu 22.04.
  • Choose an instance type (e.g., t2.micro for free-tier users).
  • Configure the security group to allow inbound traffic on ports 22 (SSH) and 80 (HTTP).
  • Launch and download the .pem key file.

Step 2: Connect to the EC2 Instance 

ssh -i your-key.pem ubuntu@your-ec2-public-ip
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Step 3: Install Required Packages 

sudo apt update sudo apt install -y python3-pip python3-venv nginx
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Deploying FastAPI on EC2

Step 1: Clone the Repository 

git clone https://github.com/hng12-devbotops/fastapi-book-project.git cd fastapi-book-project
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Step 2: Set Up the Virtual Environment 

python3 -m venv venv source venv/bin/activate pip install -r requirements.txt
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Step 3: Run the FastAPI App 

uvicorn main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 &
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Setting Up Nginx as a Reverse Proxy

Step 1: Create a New Nginx Configuration 

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/fastapi
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Add the following content:

server { listen 80; server_name your-ec2-public-ip; location / { proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; } }
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Step 2: Enable the Configuration 

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/fastapi /etc/nginx/sites-enabled sudo systemctl restart nginx
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Step 3: Adjust Firewall Settings 

sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full' sudo ufw enable
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Setting Up CI/CD with GitHub Actions

Step 1: Create Github Actions Workflow

CI: Run Tests

Create a .github/workflows/test.yml file in your repository:

name: Run Tests on: pull_request: branches: - main jobs: test: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - name: Checkout Repository uses: actions/checkout@v2 - name: Set up Python uses: actions/setup-python@v4 with: python-version: '3.9' - name: Install Dependencies run: | pip install -r requirements.txt pip install pytest - name: Run Pytest run: pytest
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CD: Deploy to AWS EC2

Create a .github/workflows/deploy.yml file in your repository:

name: Deploy to AWS EC2 on: push: branches: - main jobs: deploy: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - name: Checkout Repository uses: actions/checkout@v2 - name: Deploy to EC2 uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v0.1.3 with: host: ${{ secrets.EC2_HOST }} username: ubuntu key: ${{ secrets.EC2_SSH_KEY }} script: | cd fastapi-book-project git pull origin main source venv/bin/activate pip install -r requirements.txt sudo systemctl restart nginx
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Step 2: Add GitHub Secrets

In your repository settings, add:

  • EC2_HOST: Your EC2 Public IP

  • EC2_SSH_KEY: Your private SSH key content

Now, every push to main will automatically deploy your application.

Accessing the API

Now, visit:

http://your-ec2-public-ip/docs
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You should see the Swagger UI for testing the API.

Conclusion

In this blog, we successfully built and deployed a FastAPI Book Management API on AWS EC2 using Nginx as a reverse proxy.

🔹 Key Takeaways:

  • Built a FastAPI application with CRUD operations.
  • Set up an AWS EC2 instance.
  • Deployed the app using Uvicorn and Nginx.
  • Configured Nginx as a reverse proxy for better performance.
  • Set up GitHub Actions workflows for continuous integration and continuous testing

Now, your FastAPI app is live and accessible to the world!

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